Human Rights and Antiterrorism: A Positive Legal Duty to Infringe Freedom From Torture?

In law freedom from torture and ill-treatment is “absolute,” meaning that a state cannot infringe the right for purposes that would seem legitimate such as the protection of national security. However, with the growth in international terrorism, particularly suicide violence, should the freedom remain without limitation? This article considers legitimizing torture by reference to the “positive” legal obligation the right imposes on states to prevent harm to individuals by third parties such as terrorists. Assuming such a legal argument could be made out, it is questioned whether adopting such measures of interrogation would in fact outweigh the negative consequences that would inevitably follow from reversing accepted international standards for the protection of, say, detainees from ill-treatment in state custody

Freedom From Torture in the "War on Terror": Is it Absolute?

Freedom from torture is regarded as “absolute,” meaning that a state cannot infringe the right for purposes which would seem legitimate such as the protection of national security. Indeed, the freedom is viewed as “non-derogable”; that is, infringements are not permitted even in special circumstances such as times of war or public emergency. Is it right, however, with the growth in international terrorism post-9/11, particularly suicide violence, that the freedom should remain without limitation? Perhaps the torture of terror suspects might provide state authorities with intelligence so that acts of atrocity can be averted? To go on and construct a possible argument justifying ill-treatment against a detainee this article questions whether in fact freedom from torture can be categorised as absolute

A very English Brexit: A comparative analysis of the immigration debate in the news media of the four UK nations

This thesis compares the immigration discourses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland during Britain’s EU referendum. It has been speculated that immigration was influential in the decision to leave the European Union 23 June 2016. The decade prior to the referendum, immigration increased following EU expansion to include central and eastern European states. Migration is concentrated in south-east England with little inward migration to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Using a discourse analysis of 1476 newspaper articles from each UK nation, the thesis finds anti-immigration sentiment disseminated during the campaign to be bound in English experiences and positive experiences specific to individual nations. A sense of possessiveness in British services and culture is linked to contemporary English nationalism, informed by feelings of lost power to devolved governments, the EU and opposition to immigration

Expanding the paradigm: countering violent extremism in Britain and the need for a youth centric community based approach

In recent years, both academics and politicians alike have struggled to develop a coherent strategy on how to hone in the threat posed by Islamic extremists at home and abroad. This issue has taken center stage in recent months with the emergence of the Islamic State (IS). This article will explore the UK’s experience with trying to contain Islamic extremism, focusing particularly on the role youth development may play in future endeavors.Publisher PD

Between Hype and Understatement: Reassessing Cyber Risks as a Security Strategy

Most of the actions that fall under the trilogy of cyber crime, terrorism,and war exploit pre-existing weaknesses in the underlying technology.Because these vulnerabilities that exist in the network are not themselvesillegal, they tend to be overlooked in the debate on cyber security. A UKreport on the cost of cyber crime illustrates this approach. Its authors chose to exclude from their analysis the costs in anticipation of cyber crime, such as insurance costs and the costs of purchasing anti-virus software on the basis that "these are likely to be factored into normal day-to-day expenditures for the Government, businesses, and individuals. This article contends if these costs had been quantified and integrated into the cost of cyber crime, then the analysis would have revealed that what matters is not so much cyber crime, but the fertile terrain of vulnerabilities that unleash a range of possibilities to whomever wishes to exploit them. By downplaying the vulnerabilities, the threats represented by cyber war, cyber terrorism, and cyber crime are conversely inflated. Therefore, reassessing risk as a strategy for security in cyberspace must include acknowledgment of understated vulnerabilities, as well as a better distributed knowledge about the nature and character of the overhyped threats of cyber crime, cyber terrorism, and cyber war

Geoengineering: A war on climate change?

Geoengineering; specifically Solar Radiation Management ; has been proposed to effect rapid influence over the Earth’s climate system in order to counteract Anthropogenic Global Warming. This poses near-term to long-term governance challenges; some of which are within the planning horizon of current political administrations. Previous discussions of governance of SRM have focused primarily on two scenarios: an isolated “Greenfinger” individual; or state; acting independently ; versus more consensual; internationalist approaches. I argue that these models represent a very limited sub-set of plausible deployment scenarios. To generate a range of alternative models; I offer a short; relatively unstructured discussion of a range of different types of warfare – each with an analogous SRM deployment regime

The emergence of a lumpen-consumerate : the aesthetics of consumption and violence in the English riots of 2011

Within hours of the outset of unrest in the August 2011 English Riots, the government asserted that they were the doings of “criminal gangs”. In doing so, government officials and journalistic commentators cited television images of rioting and plundering youths. Although this assertion was subsequently abandoned, it reflected an on-going process: the criminalization of youth in Britain. The recycled images of flames and hooded teenagers came to serve as the proof of youth “gone bad”. This paper explores both the actions supposedly captured in the images depicting the riots and the discourses surrounding the reproduction of those images. It seeks to connect the youth politics of the everyday—especially the problems of being ignored as political subjects—to the formal political structures that rely on youth to be socially unruly on one hand and disciplined consumers on the other. Segments of British youth are cast out, seen as unneeded or unwanted in this disciplinary project and constitute what I call here a “lumpen-consumerate”. The paper concludes with a comparative analysis of the consumer images that both discipline young people and serve as a model for framing the unrest. The paper builds upon Deleuze, Badiou, Bourdieu, Bauman and others in order to examine how spontaneous, uncoordinated action came to be read through mass media spectacle as dismissible and intolerable images of “criminal gangs” to be policed.PostprintPeer reviewe

Fighting for “justice”, engaging the other: Shi’a muslim activism on the british university campus

While Shi’a Muslims remain in the minority in Europe, including within universities, the past decade has witnessed the growing profile of Shi’ism on university campuses, especially in Britain. In particular, there has been an emphasis on campaigns that prioritise notions of justice, equality, and human rights. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst Twelver Shi’a students in Britain between 2013–2018, this paper examines the forms of Shi’a activism currently being articulated on university campuses, especially those that explicitly seek to engage non-Muslims and spread awareness about Shi’a Islam. On the one hand, such practices constitute a form of self-representation for Shi’a students who would otherwise feel marginalised within the university space; while on the other, they promote a particular version of Shi’a Islam that both frames it within the European context and that also contributes to the sectarianisation of the contemporary Shi’a subject. While the forms and resonance of Shi’a student activism arguably only have meaning within the context of contemporary Europe, we argue that the discursive contours underpinning such activism ultimately transcend such national and cultural boundaries and contribute to a reinterpretation and reimagining of Shi’a sectarian identity for the modern age.</jats:p

Studies on the cimetidine resistant duodenal ulcer

This thesis investigates why some patients with duodenal ulcer do not respond to blockade and how these patients should be treated. Part 1 examines the effect of cimetidi.'ne lg/day, cimetidine 2g/day and vagotomy on nocturnal gastric secretion in nonresponders. Cimetidine in either dose had no significant effect on volume of gastric secretion but nocturnal intragastric acidity did show a significant decrease. Vagotomy significantly decreased both volume and acidity of secretion. These findings suggest that nonresponse to cimetidine may be due to increased vagal drive. Part 2 investigates vagal function further by measuring nocturnal pepsin secretion in patients receiving cimetidine and ranitidine. Both H2~receptor antagonists increased nocturnal pepsin secretion despite reducing acid. Previous reports suggest cimetidine inhibits pepsin out¬ put. However, patients whose acidity is controlled well with cimetidine have a rise in pH which, as pepsin is unstable at high pH values may result in pepsin deactivation . Patients whose acidity is only poorly controlled with cimetidine, therefore, do not denature pepsin, and as blockade increases vagal drive, intragastric pepsin rises. Duodenal ulcer activity correlates well with pepsin output. Thus, combination of poor acidity control with rise in intragastric pepsin results in nonresponse. Studies were also performed to investigate the mechanism of incre¬ ased pepsin secretion. These suggested that histamine may inhibit vagal drive and, therefore, blockade may increase vagal release. Cimetidine in combination with atropine 4.8mg/day resulted in a significant re¬ duction of volume, acid and pepsin secretion. This latter result suggests that cimetidine should be combined with an anticholinergic agent to inhibit vagal drive and improve control of gastric secretion which theoretically should provide improved clinical response to medical treatment